Block Island Workshop on Cooperative Control. To be Held at the Spring House Hotel in Block Island, Rhode Island.

这项建议的目的是向国家科学基金会申请资金，以部分支持即将于2003年6月10日和11日在罗德岛布洛克岛上的斯普林豪斯酒店举行的关于合作控制的块岛研讨会。这个研讨会的主要目标是将来自动物生物学、机器人、自动控制、通信和传感器网络、人工智能、动力系统、算法等领域的少数对群体协调和合作控制感兴趣的个人聚集在一起，不仅是为了介绍他们目前的工作，而且还为了描绘共同点，并在快速发展的、自然群体和人造群体协作控制的跨学科领域。智力优势：近年来，人们越来越感兴趣的是，一方面了解各种动物群体，如鱼群、鸟群、鹿群等如何协调它们的集体运动来执行有用的任务，另一方面，如何指示移动的自主智能体群体，如AUV群体、无人机群体等，在类似的人类中进行合作。例如，在生态学和进化生物学中，了解自然群体如何协调和移动如此可怕，通常没有明显的领导者或任何形式的集中控制，这是非常有兴趣的。他们必须使用什么类型的信令？如果有的话，物理介质、环境背景、洋流、漩涡或其他局部环境干扰在这一过程中扮演什么角色？有没有协调群体运动的普遍原则，那么它们可能是什么？能否将这些原则用于机器人环境，以帮助空中、陆地、海洋或水下的一大批自主运作的飞行器以安全和协调的方式集体完成有用的任务，如分布式、适应性科学数据收集、搜索和救援以及侦察？概括地说，这些都是这个研讨会要解决的问题。广泛的影响：这个研讨会将通过让学生参与研讨会来促进发现和理解，同时促进教学、培训和学习。工作坊将通过鼓励代表不足的群体积极参加研讨会来扩大这些群体的参与。毫无疑问，这一高度跨学科的会议将大大增加参与者之间和上级机构之间跨学科研究的潜力，从而加强研究和教育的基础设施。讲习班将通过出版会议记录以及向广大半技术界作相应的专题介绍和出版物，扩大传播，以增进对科学技术的了解。

The purpose of this proposal is to request funds from the National Science Foundation in partialsupport of the forthcoming Block Island Workshop on Cooperative Control which is scheduled totake place on June 10 and 11, 2003 at the Spring House Hotel on Block Island, Rhode Island.The primary objective of this workshop is to bring together a small number of individuals fromsuch fields as animal biology, robotics, automatic control, communications and sensor networks,artificial intelligence, dynamical systems, algorithms, etc. with interests in group coordination andcooperative control not primarily to present their current work, but rather to delineate commonground and to identify fundamental unresolved problems in the rapidly evolving, cross-disciplinaryfield of cooperative control of natural and man-made groups.Intellectual Merit: In recent years, there has been a growing interest in understanding on the onehand, how various animal aggregations such as fish schools, bird ocks, deer herds, etc. coordinatetheir collective motions to perform useful tasks and on the other, how groups of mobile autonomousagents such as AUV schools, UAV ocks, etc., might be instructed to cooperate in a similar man-ner.In ecology and evolutionary biology, for example, it is of great interest to understand hownatural groupings coordinate themselves and move so awlessly, often without an apparent leaderor any form of centralized control. What kinds of signaling must they use? What role if any,does the physical medium, environmental context, currents, vortices, or other local environmentaldisturbances play in this process? Are there universal principles of coordinated group motion andif so what might they be? Could such principles be used in a robotic context to help enable a largegroup of autonomously functioning vehicles in the air, on land or sea or underwater, to collectivelyaccomplish, in a safe and coordinated manner, useful tasks such as distributed, adaptive scientificdata gathering, search and rescue, and reconnaissance? In broad terms, these are the questions towhich this workshop is addressed.Broader Impacts: This workshop will advance discovery and understanding while promotingteaching, training and learning by including student participation at the workshop. The work-shopwill broaden participation of under-represented groups by encouraging such individuals toactively participate in the workshop. Without question, this highly interdisciplinary meetingwill enhance infrastructure for research and education by significantly increasing the potential forcross-disciplinary research among participants and between parent institutions. The workshop willbroaden dissemination to enhance scientific and technological understanding by means of a publishedproceedings and well as by consequential presentations and publications to a wide semi-technicalcommunity.